Introduction 

The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 and has been acquiring materials to support research and teaching ever since. This copy of A History of the Island of Barbados was acquired with the bequest of Dr William Hunter (1718-1783).

Wealth of Nations

The Wealth of Nations, as it is commonly known, was first published in London in 1776. This 1805 edition was published by Robert Chapman, who was active in book and newspaper printing in Glasgow from 1788 to 1822. The Latin inscription indicates it was in use in teaching in Glasgow in 1817. The Government in London passed the Slave Trade Act in 1807 which outlawed the trade but not slavery itself. Enslaved peoples were finally emancipated on the island of Jamaica in 1838.     

"Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations focuses on the fact that slavery makes no economic sense, and is a wickedness which stems from human nature and not from the laws of economics. This is echoed in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, where he attacks the character of those who trade on slavery. For Smith, societal issues were not just about economics but about the institutions which shape the wealth of nations and the well-being of its citizens: a message from the past we do well to remember today."

Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli
Principal and Vice-Chancellor
University of Glasgow

This map provides a wealth of information on the city at a time of great industrial expansion. When this map was drawn, slavery was still legal, even though the British Government legally abolished the transatlantic slave trade in 1807. Many of Glasgow’s street names reflected this Atlantic trade. In addition to the obvious names like Jamaica Street and Virginia Street, the names of many slave owners are on street signs in recognition of their wealth and status in the city.

“Looking at the growth of Glasgow through maps reminds me of how much the city grew and changed over the long 18th century. Framing these changes as ‘Latest Improvements’ makes me slightly uncomfortable, because as suggested by the streets named after merchants and colonial places, these ‘improvements’ were accomplished by slave money. But, I am incredibly hopeful, because the map shows that the city itself can be a teaching tool, and that Glasgow’s ‘hidden’ slave histories can be uncovered with every step taken.”

Marenka Thompson-Odlum
PhD Researcher
University of Glasgow

Gilmorehill

From 1802 to 1845, Gilmorehill House was the family home of prominent West India merchants who traded in tobacco from plantations in the West Indies and the United States of America. Enslaved people were forced to work on those plantations. They themselves had been traded in West Africa for Scottish products such as cloth.

“This is a deep reminder that we shouldn’t shy away from the past and face up to the flaws in our history. Initially upon looking at this, it’s striking that this building was architecturally incredibly beautiful, but that thought is quickly followed by a profound sense of remorse knowing that I walk over the foundations of this building on a daily basis, knowing what it represents, what it embodies.”

Scott Kirby
Students’ Representative Council President
University of Glasgow

Peggy

This inventory lists the individual and total value assigned by slave-holders to 120 enslaved men, women and children who worked on the Invera Estate in Tobago. The total value of the Estate at the time of this survey was £13,862. Of this total, £4,689 was the appraisal value of the people. The document was gifted to the University in 1934 by Thomas Fraser Campbell of Helensburgh.

“This is a document about exploitation and human misery in pursuit of profit, yet it tells us very little about the people listed. What of Peggy, the 34 year-old who laboured in the plantation’s sugar fields? From further research we know she was an Igbo woman born in present-day Nigeria and transported to Tobago as a child. This document was created as an inventory but it is also a memorial.”

Professor Simon Newman 
Sir Denis Brogan Chair of American History 
University of Glasgow

The Jamaica

This 146 foot long, three-masted iron sailing vessel known as the Jamaica was built on the Clyde in 1854 by William Simons & Co. In the 1860s, the company constructed blockade running vessels to assist wealthy Glasgow merchants evade the economic consequences of the American Civil War. The Jamaica was built for Stirling, Gordon & Co, West India Merchants, whose partners owned plantations in Jamaica. The family of one of the partners donated £3,000 towards the construction of the University buildings on Gilmorehill in the 1860s.

“This 1854 design of a Glasgow-built sailing vessel, named Jamaica, reminded me of Jamaica’s long historical links with Glasgow. Jamaica Street was opened in 1763 for trading in goods produced by chattel slaves in the West Indies. The Stirling and Dennistoun families made large fortunes from this cruel slavery. Although the history of this slavery cannot be changed, exhibitions such as this can enlighten and change the consequences.”

Professor Sir Geoff Palmer
Jamaican Honorary Consul to Scotland

Vale Royal Estate

Mirrlees Watson Co Ltd started in 1840 in Glasgow and specialised in the manufacture of sugar machinery. This is a drawing to request a spare part for a boiler on the Vale Royal Estate in Jamaica. It is signed by “HS” on 23 September 1870 and endorsed as received by David Galloway on 13 October 1870. This is one of over 6000 drawings held. Each one has place and personal name data connecting Glasgow and the world.

“Archives like these are direct physical links with our shared past. Great wealth remained with Scottish plantation owners beyond the 1833 Abolition Act. They continued to source goods and services from Scotland rather than invest in the Caribbean infrastructure. Those inequalities have been passed down the generations. I am hopeful that we can learn from the past and move forward with new shared understanding.”

Sharon Alexander-Gooding
Archivist
University of the West Indies

Slave Bible

This rare ‘Slave Bible’ was among 10,000 books donated to the University by insurance broker William Euing in 1874. It was published in London for Christian missionaries and was heavily edited to remove anything that might be seen to incite a rebellion.

“Bob Marley once sang about mental slavery ‘none but ourselves can free our minds’. Pro-slavery ‘Christians’ were very deliberate in editing the Bible to exclude its most inconvenient truths about freedom, emancipation, liberty, justice and mercy. Enslaved Africans and their descendants had these mental chains smelted from a peculiarly Scottish mixture of white-supremacist racial hatred and enlightenment rationalist missionary zeal. This bible was as effective a tool of enslavement as any cast-iron chains.”

Councillor Graham Campbell
Glasgow City Council

Language

James Lumsden & Son was a Scottish engraving and publishing firm based in Glasgow and founded in 1783. This image is taken from a crudely produced chapbook sold to working-class people in Scotland and the North of England.

Chapbooks often incorporated a moral to be learned by the reader. European children’s literature of the period was heavily influenced by the philosophical ideas of young minds being a clean slate, ready to be moulded. In this chapbook we see an enslaved person depicted. The reader is alerted to this enslaved person being “marked with many a scar”.

“Funtunfunefu, Denkemfunefu. Denkyem mienu tua aforo bako nanso omodidi a, omoko! At five years old, I read books written in English Twi and Eʋegbe with alphabets I now use to write these texts. If I had also been taught to read and write in Adinkra, just as I learnt to speak in multiple languages, I would have been much enriched.”

Dr Gameli Tordzro 
Musician in Residence
UNESCO RILA
University of Glasgow

Hab. In Africa Aequin

Citron Bug (Leptoglossus gonagra)
1771-1775, Sierra Leone
The Hunterian, GLAHM:126507

This specimen is from the collection of the anatomist and physician Dr William Hunter who bequeathed his collections to the University for research and teaching. The identity of this insect specimen was unconfirmed when the cabinet label in the photograph was first written. It tells us only that it originated from Equinoctial Africa and was collected by Henry Smeathman (1742-1786). Smeathman was an English naturalist who was paid to travel to Sierra Leone to collect and send back specimens to Europe to enrich scientific understanding. He and his insects travelled back to Europe via the West Indies aboard a slave ship.

"In the 18th century, British entomologists carried out important research on the natural history of tropical insects. However, their methodologies were often exploitative, ignorant and inhumane. Today strict codes of ethics govern our work. Equitable partnerships with African scientists, communities and institutes are essential. It is not widely known that the founders of my discipline were involved in the slave trade in such a direct and disgraceful manner. This should be acknowledged and addressed as we seek to move forward.”

Professor Heather Ferguson 
Infectious Disease Ecologist
University of Glasgow

Perspective

This artwork depicts the Foulis Academy of the Fine Arts established in 1754 within the University of Glasgow buildings on the High Street. Its founders were Andrew and Robert Foulis who sought funding from the wealthy merchants of the city to start their school. Those merchants - Campbell, Glassford and Ingram - made their money from the slave trade in the West Indies. David Allan was a student at the Academy from 1755-1762. His paintings and illustrations can be found in collections across Scotland, including The Hunterian, Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.

“It is a privilege to study and work at an institution with such historic collections. Objects in museums have the ability to speak to, or share, ‘hidden histories’ from a multitude of perspectives. Understanding the back story to beautiful objects, like this image of the Academy of the Fine Arts, can be shocking and difficult. But it is fundamental to how we interpret and understand our connection to the past.”

Jules Koch
Museum Studies Postgraduate Student
University of Glasgow

B is for Black

The Child’s Instructor or Picture Alphabet
Early 19th century
University of Glasgow Library, James Lumsden & Son Archive, DC112/16/1

This book was printed and sold by the Lumsden family printing business. The most prominent member of the family was Sir James Lumsden who was knighted for his services to the City as Lord Provost when the foundation stone for the University’s new buildings on Gilmorehill was laid by the Prince of Wales in 1868. In 1864, Lumsden, like many other wealthy Glasgow businessmen, profited from investments in ships built on the Clyde for the purpose of evading the port blockades in the Southern states of America. The blockades were set up by President Abraham Lincoln as part of the fight to abolish slavery.

“B is for black, c is for captain: alphabet-themed misadventures of a terribly seasick crew with stoic colonial disposition in unrelenting tidal waves of historical inadequacies.”

^{Copyright © 2019, Tawona ‘ganyamatope’ Sithole. 
All rights reserved.}

Tawona ‘ganyamatope’ Sithole 
Poet-in-residence
Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network 
University of Glasgow

these seas swirl fires 
and beasts to tame 
dark lands with dangers 
and treasures unknown 
to err may recur 
but swear to recall 
good lords and ladies 
and thrones to obey

aye aye captain

if only you could see your ship now 
storms have been plenty 
still i’ve honoured your orders 
cool as watermelon 
learnt to read and write 
but cannot ‘rithmetic my way 
out of the hold of your ship